Do you want to capture the character and movement of birds in watercolour, but don't know where to start? Or do you find yourself getting caught up in painting every feather? This new practical online course celebrates everything watercolour has to offer and helps you paint the essence of birds and their behaviour.

Based on my best selling book of the same name, the six lessons and projects in this course cover drawing, pen and wash and pure watercolour techniques, with examples of garden birds, birds of prey and domestic fowl. It is a stand alone course, but also an excellent accompaniment to the book. By the end you will have the skills, experience and confidence to tackle feathered subjects of your choosing.

Before taking part in this course, please watch the short introduction. I really want you to get the most out of this, so this will help you decide whether it is right for you. The two pdfs in this section give you an outline of the content and an understanding of the materials you need. There is nothing specialist required and I always encourage painters to improvise and use the colours and brushes they already own.

All lessons are pre-recorded, so that you can access them at any time and repeat them as often as you want. You do not need to do the lessons in order, however I would suggest that sections 2, 3 and 4 are completed in any order before moving onto sections 5, 6 and 7.

If you still have questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch and I hope you really enjoy this course!

Welcome to the first lesson!

Birds come from eggs and remain pretty egg shaped throughout their lives, so by finding the 'inner egg', it gives us as artists, the ability to capture a pose and proportions very quickly.

In this lesson, I will show you how to analyse a pose in a few key lines and shapes. I will also introduce you to using water resistant pens for sketching, showing you how they can capture line and tone. We will also add colour to bring our sketches to life. 

By the end of this lesson you will be more confident in sketching birds and hopefully be grabbing your pen and sketch book and heading off to the garden of park to put your skills into practice!

Welcome to the second lesson. By the end of this section you will be able to paint the three types of birds' eyes and there is the added advantage that this understanding and skill will be equally applicable to paintings of all animals, not just birds

Whether it is the bright and beady eye of a garden visitor or the amber eyes of a hunting owl, the eye is key to a successful bird study. I will show you how all birds' eyes fall into one of three groups. I will give you examples and we will paint each together. 

Watercolour is a wonderful medium for painting eyes. All eyes are liquid and full of life - which is just how I would describe watercolour too!

Welcome to the third lesson. 

Watercolour is such a simple medium in theory, just add water to your paint and brush it onto the paper. The paper can be wet or dry, your paint can be thick or thin, so there are only four possible combinations to make up our basic techniques.

Of course you have been using watercolour in the first two lessons and no doubt you will have quickly realised that the quality of the edges makes a huge difference to whether your paintings are full of movement and interest or look static and 'cut out'

This lesson concentrates on technique and edges and shows how combining them creates the feeling of flight in an elegant Canada goose.

By the end of the lesson, you should be able to paint hard and soft edges to create the focus and effect you want.

Congratulations on getting this far. You have already improved your drawing and observation skills, you know how to paint luminous eyes and you understand the importance of controlling water and letting it work for you. You've learnt a lot so far, and in this lesson we will combine these new skills in a painting of a tawny owl.

Given that birds are often recognised by the colour of their plumage, there is less opportunity to play around with unexpected colours in the bird world, but with its distinctive shape and huge eyes this tawny owl does let us play with colours. Colour-value switching is where the artist keeps the tone (or value i.e. light/dark) correct, but alters the colour (hue) to use unexpected combinations.

When we think of painting, we automatically think of painting with a brush. However there are lots of exciting ways of making marks on paper that don't depend on using a paint brush.

In this section we will explore a few and then put them into practice in a painting of two Guinea Fowl. We will also use masking fluid, so if you haven't used it much before (or not at all), you will learn some of the strengths and weaknesses of its use. Another key skill explored in this section is combining individual reference photos or parts thereof into a final composition. Lots of different photos have been supplied, so if you don't like what I have done, why not combine them into your own unique take on these amazing birds?

So there is a lot going on here and by the end you will have lots of ideas and tools you can use in all your paintings, irrespective of the subject matter.

Line and wash technique is where painting and drawing meet. The strength of the ink combines with the lightness and fluidity of the wash. It makes it a stunning technique for painting birds of prey - capturing their strength and grace.

In this section you will be introduced to line and wash, including mark making with dip pens and Indian ink and then you will discover how to use watercolour to put the air beneath the wings of a hovering kestrel. Don't worry if you either do not have dip pens, or you don't like using them. You can use fineliners (also know as Microns). You will need a variety of widths and you may have to work a little harder to get the variety of marks and character which dip pens have in spades.

In the, optional, final section, we will explore how adding text to our paintings can add a new level of meaning. I use some small printing blocks, but you can use your own handwriting (if it is neater than mine!), collage, letter punches etc.

By the end, you will have explored the beautiful mixed media combination of ink and watercolour and have the experience to tackle your own favourite birds.

Congratulations - you are amazing. Did you know on average only 15% of people complete online courses they have purchased? You have put lots of work in and I hope you have enjoyed it too.

Having reached the end of Painting Birds in Watercolour, you have only just started your journey. It's a cliche but true...

The skills and techniques you have learnt here can be combined in an infinite number of ways to paint every sort of bird.

I would love to see what you do, so please consider joining my online Facebook Group and sharing your work there. It is a friendly and supportive place, full of artists from around the world all with different experience. You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/watercolourstudiowithlizchaderton/